Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) eBook

II

ROBINSON WORKS HARD AT MAKING HIMSELF A HOME

When he had rested a little, Robinson got up and began
to walk about very sadly, for darkness was coming
on; he was wet, and cold, and hungry, and he did not
know where to sleep, because he was afraid of wild
beasts coming out of the woods and killing him during
the night.

But he found that he still had his knife in his pocket,
so he cut a big stick to protect himself with.
Then he climbed into a tree which had very thick leaves,
and there he fixed himself among the branches as well
as he could, and fell sound asleep.

In the morning when he awoke, the storm was past,
and the sea quieter. To his surprise, he saw
that the ship had been carried in the night, by the
great seas, much nearer to the shore than she had been
when the boat left her, and was now lying not far
from the rock where Robinson had first been washed
up.

By midday the sea was quite calm, and the tide had
gone so far out that he could walk very near to the
ship. So he took off his clothes and swam the
rest of the way to her. But it was not easy to
get on board, because the ship was resting on the
sand, and lay so high out of the water that Robinson
could not reach anything by which he could pull himself
up.

At last, after swimming twice round the vessel, he
saw a rope hanging over, near the bow, and by its
help he climbed on board.

Everything in the stern of the ship was dry, and in
pretty good order, and the water had not hurt the
provisions much. So he took some biscuits, and
ate them as he looked about, and drank some rum, and
then he felt better, and stronger, and more fit to
begin work.

First of all, he took a few large spars of wood, and
a spare topmast or two, that were on the deck.
These he pushed overboard, tying each with a rope
to keep it from drifting away. Then he went over
the side of the ship, and tied all the spars together
so as to make a raft, and on top he put pieces of
plank across. But it was long before he could
make the raft fit to carry the things he wanted to
take on shore.

At last, after much hard work, he got on to it three
of the seamen’s chests, which he had broken
open, and emptied, and he filled these with bread,
and rice, and cheese, and whatever he could find to
eat, and with all sorts of things that he thought
he might need. He found, too, the carpenter’s
tool-chest, and put it on the raft; and nothing on
the whole ship was of more use to him than that.

Then he set about looking for clothes, for while he
had been on the ship, the tide had risen and had washed
away his coat and waistcoat and shirt, which he had
left lying on the sand.

Guns and pistols also, and powder and shot, he took,
and two rusty old cutlasses.

Now the trouble was to reach land, for the raft had
no mast nor sail nor rudder, and was too heavy and
clumsy to be pulled by Robinson with the broken oars
that he had found. But the tide was rising, and
slowly she drifted nearer and nearer, and at last
was carried up the mouth of a little river which Robinson
had not seen when he was on shore.